Día Cuatro - Santa Clara

We left the hotel at 8:00 AM in route to Santa Clara. Our Cuban guide shared some insight on the Bay of Pigs and the missle crisis. For the first 2 hours we viewed a lot of countryside and farm land. We stopped in the province of Mantanzas for some coffee and bathrooms, a little souvenir shopping and guinea pig gambling! 

In route we also viewed a few documentaries on Cuba and Fidel specifically. Movies here are mostly played from USB drives. We started with a documentary called The Man of Two Havanas but had issues during the movie and put on another produced by Oliver Stone and his interviews with Fidel called Comandante. A very interesting watch. 

Just through some discussion with the group, I learned that there is organized religion in Cuba but it is more common to be atheist. In large part due to the lack of support of religion by Fidel. Jean also gave me a little insight to Santería. 

There is one highway that goes from Havana to the east side of the island. Another from Havana to the southwest area. In some areas it is in bad shape and we drove on the opposite side of the road to avoid some rough patches but there aren't many people out on the highway. 

Santa Clara is the city of Che Guevara. He was from Argentina. Che led the last battle of the revolution here. The biggest product of their economy is sugar cane. 

We first went to a children's dance school called La Compañía a la Sombra de Ala.The school focuses on developing a child's imagination through dance. The teacher is only there to facilitate. The children use their imagination, bodies and voice. It is free for the students. Their ages were 6-13. They depicted through animals, eating too much, drinking and smoking being bad and reading and becoming friends, good. There are no constumes, they're all wearing black to focus on their dance. After their performance we played a game like hot potato, but with a broom and if you're holding the broom when the music stops you must act out something of the children's choice. I was out before Jean, who won, and I acted out a butterfly. 

After that we headed to the House of Culture of Santa Clara. Here we watched a band called Piquete Melodías Antilanas. They played 200 year old instruments for us. 

At the House of Culture we also viewed the national dance of Cuba, Danzon by Alegrias de Vivir a senior dance club. These performances were performed in an effort to keep the dance and music alive. Members performed, invited us to dance and had a competition. Everyone enjoyed themselves. 

A view from the House of Culture above the Leoncio Vidal Plaza in Santa Clara. In the plaza, a man said to our tour guide "They came even before the embassy." We had a good laugh over that and will always remember it. 

Then we visited the Ernesto Che Guevara monument, memorial and museum. It was quaint but a nice tribute to such an influential revolutionary. We couldn't bring cameras into the memorial or museum. Apparently someone had disguised a bomb as a camera so entrants lost the camera privledge a few years back. 

We arrived to our hotel! There's so much character here. One can definitely tell the difference between the city hotel in Havana and the countryside hotel we are in now. Dinner was had at the hotel and the next day brings our travels to Camagüey (Cam-ah-gway). 

An important note: There is a strong connection between Cubans and Dominicans. They all have such a connection with Jean when they find out her background. It's like the Domincan Republic is a sister country, both being from the Caribbean and past relations. They notice her accent almost immediately and are so warm and interested to speak with her. It is a sight to witness.